Wandering Worshipers Consecrate Temple

After holding services in a bank lobby for more than four years, the western Delray Beach congregation moved into a new home on Atlantic Avenue Sunday.

``It was a lot of hard work, but it was worth it. It`s a thrill,`` said Ben Simon, a retired builder who supervised construction of the $1 million Temple Anshei Shalom. ``We were the traveling synagogue. We worshiped wherever they gave us permission.``

About 100 members of the congregation did some traveling Sunday, when they marched nearly a mile west on Atlantic Avenue from the Carteret Savings and Loan to their new synagogue. Along the way, the marchers took turns carrying three sacred Torahs to the new temple, where nearly 1,000 more congregation members waited.

The bank has been home to the Torahs and the congregation since January 1981, when Simon and about a dozen other residents of the Villages of Oriole development began looking for a place of worship.

``There were only a handful of us then`` said Jack Levine, a former Air Force captain. ``But over the years our membership increased. We were putting between 300 and 400 people in the bank for services.``

Levine credited branch manager Ester Wright with making the bank available for Friday night and Saturday morning services.

``She let us use the bank, the kitchen and 130 chairs, all for free`` he said. Simon said the bank also let the congregation keep its Torahs, the sacred scrolls on which the first five books of the Bible are handwritten, in a spare room.

``We built a portable arc to keep the Torahs,`` he said. ``We`d push it out for the services and then push it back in the room when we were finished.``

Wright, who has been opening up the bank doors on Saturday mornings for more than four years, said the bank was just doing its part to serve the community. She also hinted that it was good business.

``These are our customers,`` she said. ``I`m sure there were some more customers generated by our kindness.``

Wright said she will miss the friends she made from the congregation. ``They`re a bunch of lovely people,`` she said. But she will not miss them on Saturday mornings. ``It will be nice to sleep in Saturdays.``

Sunday`s ceremonies began on the steps of the bank, where Temple President Edward Dorfman led the marchers in hymns and invited Wright and other bank officials to ``join us in our consecration day.``

The march began on a threatening note at 1:15 p.m., as thunder clapped in the distance and rain began falling lightly. But the shower was brief, and 45 minutes later the Torahs, covered by a chupah, or canopy, were carried into the new synagogue to the sound of music and clapping.